Take the Abraham Quiz

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The Bible is mysterious and difficult, but it's not impossible. With a little bit of background knowledge about the ancient cultures of the Bible, ordinary people like you and me can learn to read scripture in such a way that even some of its mysterious parts offer important insights. Below is a bit of background information about a very strange episode in Genesis. Read the background, take the quiz, and let me know what you think."Butcher's Shop," by Annibale Carracci, 1580 [Wikipedia]  

You "Cut" a Covenant

In the ancient middle east, the way 2 parties formalized an agreement was through a covenant ceremony. In Hebrew, you "cut" a covenant, because covenants involved taking animals and sacrificing them, and then walking between the carcasses.

And Say, "I'll Become a Slaughtered Calf"

Here's the point: when you walked between the pieces of the slaughtered animals, you were saying, "May I become like these dead animals if I don't keep my end of the agreement."(I think our wedding ceremonies would be much more interesting and divorce much less frequent if we adopted the same practice....)beefmap

So, Abraham Gets Ready

In Genesis 15, Abraham, on the Lord's instructions, prepares one of those covenants:

The Lord said to Abraham, Bring me a heifer three years old, a female goat three years old, a ram three years old, a turtle-dove, and a young pigeon.?10He brought him all these and cut them in two, laying each half over against the other; but he did not cut the birds in two.11And when birds of prey came down on the carcasses, Abram drove them away." [Genesis 15:9-11]

It's obvious what will happen next: Abraham will pass between the carcasses, showing his commitment to the Lord's plan.Abrahamic-Covenant-890x713 

But Something Strange Happens

But, that's not what happens:

12?As the sun was going down, a deep sleep fell upon Abram, and a deep and terrifying darkness descended upon him....17When the sun had gone down and it was dark, a smoking fire-pot and a flaming torch passed between these pieces.18On that day the?Lordmade a covenant with Abram, saying, To your descendants I give this land, from the river of Egypt to the great river, the river Euphrates,?19the land of the Kenites, the Kenizzites, the Kadmonites,?20the Hittites, the Perizzites, the Rephaim,?21the Amorites, the Canaanites, the Girgashites, and the Jebusites." [Genesis 15:12, 17-21, my emphasis].

 

Take the Quiz: What Does Genesis 15:17 Mean?

What's the point of the covenant ceremony recounted in Genesis 15? What does this mean?(Hint: The best way to read the Bible is to read backwards, i.e., to read the Old Testament in light of what we have in the New Testament. To put it another way, use Jesus as the interpretive key. In light of what the Church believes about Jesus, what's going on in Genesis 15?)  

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3 Don'ts When Reading Genesis

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Genesis is hard enough as it is; here are three things NOT to do when reading the first book of the Bible."The Tower of Babel," by Pieter Brueghel

Don't Mistake "Is" for "Should"

Genesis is descriptive, not prescriptive, i.e., it describes the world as it is, not as it should be. Subsequent to The Fall described in chapter 3, every situation, family, and life is corrupted by sin. Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob are sinful men, and their families are a mess. Don't be surprised when great heroes of the faith turn out to be seriously flawed. And don't confuse descriptions of sin with approval of sin, even in the lives of the Patriarchs.The good news? God writes straight with crooked lines.

Don't Draw Conclusions Before the End

The Bible is not a series of disconnected stories; rather, it is one long drama in three acts, with a prologue at the beginning and an epilogue at the end:

  • The Prologue: Genesis 1-11 (Creation, Fall, and the Flood)
  • Act 1: Genesis 12 through the rest of the Old Testament (Covenant and Israel)
  • Act 2: the Gospels (Jesus)
  • Act 3: the book of Acts up through the present day (the Church)
  • The Epilogue: the Book of Revelation (the End).

Each small story in the Bible fits into the larger whole. You wouldn't draw too many conclusions about the author of a story from the first page of a novel or the director of the movie from its first five minutes. In the same way, reserve judgment until you see how the story resolves. Yes, there are parts of the story that are troubling, but reserve judgment until you see where everything is going.

Don't Fill the Gaps with Suspicion

The Bible is filled with gaps. All we usually get are big broad strokes, and it's left to our imagination to fill in the gaps about why or how. For example, in the Genesis 4 account of Cain and Abel, why does the Lord God approve of Abel's gift but not Cain's? Isn't that rather arbitrary and unfair?Mind the gapHere's the true answer: no one knows why God preferred Abel's gift to Cain's. In the face of such a gap, then, we have to fill it with our own conjectures.Unfortunately, in the modern, cynical world, we are quick to fill gaps in the Bible with our own suspicions. But suspicion is a choice, and there is another approach:Don't fill gaps with suspicion; fill gaps with trust.It's true that deciding ahead of time to fill the gaps in the Bible with trust is a faith decision, but deciding ahead of time to read with a hermeneutic of suspicion is itself a faith decision. If you decide ahead of time that the Bible can't be trusted and that God is cynically setting up people for failure so he can punish them, then nothing you read will ever change your mind.A better way is to decide to fill the gaps in Genesis and elsewhere with trust and humility. Then, when you encounter things you don't understand, you'll admit what you don't know and assume that what you don't understand has a purpose in God's redemptive plan.

P.S. What About the Bizarre Stuff in Genesis 6:1-4?

If you ever tried to read through Genesis, chances are that Genesis 6:1-4 caused you some trouble.

When people began to multiply on the face of the ground, and daughters were born to them,‘the sons of God saw that they were fair; and they took wives for themselves of all that they chose.Then the?Lord‘said, My spirit shall not abide?in mortals for ever, for they are flesh; their days shall be one hundred and twenty years.?The Nephilim were on the earth in those days?and also afterwards?when the sons of God went in to the daughters of humans, who bore children to them. These were the heroes that were of old, warriors of renown."

-Genesis 6:1-4 [NRSV]

Here's the truth: nobody really understands this passage. Here's how Terence Fretheim puts is:

This brief segment is one of the most difficult in Genesis both to translate and interpret. Certain words are rare or unknown...; issues of coherence arise on many points. These verses may be a fragment of what was once a longer story, or scribes may have added to or subtracted from the text. The fact that the text presents ambiguity may be precisely the point, however: the mode of telling matches the nature of the message....

"Consistent with other sections in chaps. 1-11, this material reflects an era no longer accessible to Israel. [That is, the ancient Israelites who were the original readers of Genesis. --AF] The text does not mirror a typical human situation...but speaks of a time long past when God decreed a specific length to human life."

-Terence Fretheim, from?Genesis, in vol. I of?The New Interpreter's Bible

So, who are the mysterious "sons of God" mentioned in v. 2? Three options:

1. They are sons of Seth, mentioned in chapter 5, mixing with unbelievers.

2. "They may be royal or semi-divine figures who accumulated women in their harems" (Fretheim).

3. They are some kind of angelic beings. This seems most likely in context, and most troubling and bizarre to think about.

But, basically, as mysterious as this passage is, it fits with the larger context: before the Flood, things were going from bad to worse, spinning out of control.

The good news is that?Genesis 6:1-4 doesn't affect any important Christian doctrines or beliefs. (Which doesn't mean it isn't really strange.)

Lurking at the Door

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Where did it go wrong with Bob McDonnell? Where does it go wrong with any of us? Beware thinking that you or I are aren't capable of the same things. And worse.Former Virginia Gov. Bob McDonnell. (AP Photo/Steve Helber)

What Do You Do When You Want to Sin?

It's a question I've been asking recently: how does someone purposely refuse sin when it's sin that he wants to choose?It's easy to refuse sin when it's not what you want, but what about when sin's precisely what you most want?The one who wants to commit adultery?will choose adultery.The one who wants to steal will choose theft.The one wants to gossip will choose to spread the unkind word.The one who wants to murder will choose murder.At the moment when you are confronted with a sinful choice that you've already decided you want to take, it's too late.

The First Murder in the Bible

The first murder in the Bible is in Genesis 4, but before it happens, the LORD God warns Cain, "Sin is lurking at the door. It's desire is for you, but you must master it" [Genesis 4:7 NRSV].At some point, rather than fearing sin, Cain welcomed it, and was devoured.Cain murders Abel--his own brother--and murder has been part of the human story ever since.[http://www.africadreamsafaris.com]

No One Is Safe

Bob McDonnell, former Governor of Virginia, was sentenced Tuesday to 2 years in Federal Prison on corruption charges. Bob McDonnell is a Christian and is?described by his family, associates, and political rivals as a good man. And yet for all that, Bob McDonnell made a choice to choose the sin that would devour him, but that choice wasn't at the specific moment that a political donor asked him for some special favors: it was way before that.At some point, Bob McDonnell made a choice to ignore small dishonest choices. And then those choices grew up.Sin starts small, but grows. There are sins in my life that if I ignore--or worse, deliberately attract--will devour me.Same goes for you.At the moment we are faced with the sin that will devour us, it's too late. The only way to be protected is to fight the sins early, when you don't want them and when they are small.

Kill It Early

The easy time to kill adultery is when the first thought of it appears, not when you're on‘the work trip with the co-worker you've been flirting and drinking with for 48 hours and whom you've been looking forward to sleeping with for several weeks. At that point, you?want to choose sin, and you will. At that point, sin's been lurking at your door a long time: its desire for you is probably much stronger than your desire to master it.You fight theft by attacking the obvious signs of greed in your life.You fight gossip by repenting of small harmful sentences you speak about others.You fight murder by being aware of your tendency to small bursts of indignance and superiority.

It's Lurking At Your Door

I'm not any better than anyone else. And neither are you. But for the grace of God, there we go.

Quick Thoughts on Genesis 1 (& the Best Visual Interpretation I've Seen)

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How things begin matters. We see God‘s intention for creation from the beginning: an integrated whole, in which all the parts are good and all the parts fit together to give glory to God. The Hebrew word for this is?shalom: peace, wholeness, harmony.I love this visual interpretation of Genesis 1 [www.minimumbible.com]

The Song of Creation

One other quick thought on Genesis 1. The author talks of days and nights from the very beginning, but the sun and the moon aren‘t created until the fourth day. Ancient peoples were more connected to sun and moon than we are, now that we have electricity and night doesn‘t mean dark. Ancient peoples certainly knew that the sun and the moon are required for there to be days? and nights.Here‘s the point: Genesis 1 is a beautiful theological treatise on creation, and for me, I don‘t see it contradicting physics and cosmology; I see physics and cosmology providing the fine details and Genesis 1 the broad strokes. 

P.S. The Best Visual Interpretation of the Bible I've Ever Seen

I've written previously about Darren Aronofsky's?Noah?and shared some of my reservations about the final 15 disappointing minutes of the movie. But this scene in which Noah retells the Genesis story of Creation and Fall is the best visual interpretation of scripture I've ever seen (although the image from The Minimum Bible project I included above is pretty good, too):[embed]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FFCXHr8aKDk[/embed]

P.P.S. Join Us!

Folks in my church are reading through Genesis as part of our 2015 Bible?reading plan. We'd love to have you join us and make it a part of your #First15. 

One Word That Will Change Your Life

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What if there were one word that had the power to change every aspect?of your life? What if one word could affect your health, your finances, your marriage, your career? What if applying one word to your everyday life could really have that much of an effect?Polish nun wearing a habit in 1939. wikipedia.com

The Power of Habit (which isn't our "one word")

Charles Duhigg wrote about habits in his 2012 book?The Power of Habit, which I briefly reviewed here. As Mr. Duhigg explains, your brain develops habits so you don't have to spend energy thinking through decisions--you just act without thinking. An important part of that process is the "habit loop," which works like this:First, there is the?cue‘that triggers the habit;Second, there is the routine?itself;Third, there is the?reward from the routine.http://charlesduhigg.com

This Is Why You Are Addicted to Your Phone

In practice, the habit loop might work like this:1. Your phone buzzes. That's the?cue.2. You take your phone out and look at it. That's the?routine.3. You get a dopamine hit from the new email. That's the?reward. Note that sometimes the email or notification you get isn't meaningful to you. But, because?sometimes the notification might mean something, your brain still perceives it as a potential reward.www.cnet.comThe power of the habit loop is evident in the way many of us will interrupt virtually anything else going on in our lives to look at our phones when they buzz. And it's all because of the simple habit loop of?cue, routine, and reward. 

Change Your Habits, Change Your Life

Knowing this about habits, we are able to manipulate them to get the results we want. In some ways, for example, Alcoholics Anonymous is all about replacing destructive habits with healthy ones. (This is why coffee is an important part of so many AA meetings. Coffee becomes part of a replacement habit loop.)Here's the truth: if you are intentional about your habits, you can change your life. 

The Power of a?Keystone Habit

When the first one falls, so do all the rest.... [The really interesting part of?The Power of Habit?is the discussion about so-called "Keystone Habits." A keystone habit is a simple habit that has effects that cascade into other aspects of an individual's or a group's life.So, a keystone habits might be:

To think of it another way, a keystone habit is the first domino that falls and knocks down all the others with it.So, a keystone habit in healthy families is having dinner together at home every evening. That simple practice affects the relationship between the mom and the dad and the kids' behavior in school and even their reading level. It's one domino that falls, knocking over a bunch of others.

A One Word Keystone Habit Guaranteed to Change Your Life

Very early in the morning, while it was still dark, Jesus got up, left the house and went off to a solitary place, where he prayed." (Mark 1:35). [My emphasis.]

[wikipedia.com]"Early"?is a word that can change your life.Early?is about intentionally spending?the first 15 minutes of your day--before doing anything else--in silent prayer and scripture reading.Early?is shorthand for a keystone habit that will affect every other part of your life. Guaranteed. 

Don't Start Your Day Being Reactive

Most of us start our day in this way:1. The alarm goes off. (The?cue.)2. We pick up our phone and check our email, or our Facebook or Twitter accounts, or turn on our preferred news channel, or check on an overnight sports score. (The routine.)3. We get a hit of dopamine as we feel more connected and assure ourselves we haven't missed out on anything. (The?reward.)What's so problematic about this habit is that?it means‘that we are spending the first minutes of our day in a reactive rather than an active pose.[http://larrycuban.wordpress.com]

No Wonder We Are Such Anxious People

Do you really want to spend the first minutes you have every day seeing what someone else had for dinner or hearing another depressing headline about the world or worrying about your boss's latest request? Rather than being in control of your day, starting your day by checking headlines or email or social media accounts means you are immediately ceding control to someone or something else.

The Power of the First 15

Now, imagine the alternative.1. The alarm goes off.2. You get up and settle into your favorite chair or sit at the kitchen table or go on your front porch. You deliberately cultivate a sense of gratitude at another day of life. You think over the coming day's appointments and pray for each of them. You read a psalm or a portion of a scripture reading plan. You pray for your family, your colleagues, your city.3. You shut your Bible, close your journal, take a deep breath, and start your day.Can you imagine what could happen if you intentionally started every day like this?Can you imagine how much more control and how much less anxiety you'd have throughout the day?

Don't Worry If You're Not a Morning Person

Everyone has to get up sometime. Even if you aren't a morning person, you can still wake up 15 minutes earlier than you would normally. "Early" means to be deliberate about your first 15 minutes. It doesn't really matter when that 15 is. If you work the night shift, your first 15 could be 4:00 PM. What matters is that you spend your first 15 minutes in silence and scripture.

Don't Worry If You're Not a Religious Person

Even if you don't believe in prayer or scripture, you can still do this. Spend the first 15 minutes of your day thinking of all you have to be grateful for.

5 Steps to Life Change

  1. Create a morning routine. Think deliberately through your cue, your routine, and your reward. Maybe you need to set the coffee machine to be a part of your First 15. For me, marking a big fat "X" on a paper calendar is surprisingly satisfying.
  2. Create an evening routine. You need to prepare the night before for how you'll spend your First 15 every day. Lay out your Bible; set out your cereal bowl. Whatever it is, your morning routine begins with an evening routine.
  3. Plan your time. Don't just get up and see what you want to do. Rather, make a plan to follow a certain reading plan or to pray over a certain list of names or read an online devotional or to deliberately list all the gifts?for which you are grateful that day, etc.
  4. Commit for 21 days. Anyone can commit to the First 15 one day, but that's not enough for the habit loop to affect your behavior. Commit for three week?no matter what and see what happens.
  5. Evaluate. What's working? What's not working? If you are struggling to make the First 15 a habit, then you should reexamine your habit loop. Is the cue not clear enough? Is the routine not smooth enough? Do you need a better reward?

Pushups Over Time

Following a habit once doesn't make any difference; following a habit for weeks and months and years will change your life. Doing 20 pushups today is irrelevant; doing 10 pushups a day for 100 days will radically alter your health.Being deliberate with your First 15 once might not make a big difference, but even 3 weeks of practicing the "early" habit will make you into a different person.

What do you have to lose?

P.S. Folks in my church are currently following a scripture reading plan called "Eat This Book." Today is the first day of a new book--we're beginning Luke's Gospel today. Why not make a chapter of Luke's Gospel part of your First 15 for the next 3 weeks?

What Trade-Off Do You Need to Make This Month?

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As I've blogged about before, I use a paper calendar and a Sharpie marker to keep myself getting up early every morning and getting a workout in. But since the end of August, I now use two calendars(!): one's still my workout calendar, while the other is a scripture-reading calendar that's part of the "Eat This Book" campaign in my church. Here's my scripture calendar for September:photo 1Pretty good, right? (It doesn't hurt that I'm trying to blog about the Eat This Book reading every day. I did end up missing a few days last week; maybe I need a blogging calendar, too....)

September Is the Cruelest Month

Unfortunately, I've not been as consistent in working out. In fact, September was my worst month so far this year. Here's my workout calendar for September:FullSizeRenderWhat happened? You could say that I became a lazy slob (and you wouldn't be far wrong), but more specifically, here's the truth: I didn't make the trade-offs necessary to get a workout in every morning.

There Are Always Trade-offs

I read a book this summer that reminded me of a principle that I already knew but often choose to ignore: everything in life comes with a cost; everything requires a trade-off. If you say "Yes" here, it means saying "No" there. This principle obviously applies to time management, but it also applies to much bigger life choices. And it's a principle that the Israelites learned at the foot of Mount Sinai and that we can read about in Exodus 33.

What's the Problem With A Little Jewelry?

While Moses is on Mount Sinai receiving the Ten Commandments, the Israelites are having an idolatrous revel?[Exodus 32]. They even make a golden calf and begin to worship it. On returning, Moses is furious, has the golden calf melted down and ground into dust, and then collects all the jewelry that the Israelites possess and forbids jewelry among the Israelites from that point forward [Exodus 33:4-6]. Why? What's the problem with Israelite jewelry?

Every "Yes" Requires a "No"

The Lord knew that if the Israelites kept their pagan gold and other jewelry, they would be tempted over and over again to idolatry, because the original golden calf was made out of the jewelry and ornaments the Israelites were wearing [cf. Exodus 32:1-3]. If the Israelites were going to turn from idolatry, they needed to make a clean break, and apparently even their jewelry might have been an occasion for sin and idolatry.

No Exceptions

There are?always trade-offs, without exception.

  • Saying yes to your spouse means saying no to everyone else. Marriage requires exclusivity and priority, or else it doesn't work.
  • Saying yes to financial freedom at age 60 means saying no to the kind of expenses your friends are racking up in their 30s.
  • Saying yes to sobriety means saying no to hanging out with your bar-hopping friends.

There is no exception to the trade-off principle. There are no short-cuts.

It's a New Month

Today is October 1. What new beginning can you make this month? What trade-off can you intentionally make? What are you going to have to give up in order to get something better? Maybe it's time to take off your pagan jewelry and throw it in the fire. (You do understand that's a metaphor, right?)

P.S.

I got to bed really late last night and really didn't want to get up at 5:00 AM this morning. But more than I wanted to stay in bed, I wanted to have a series of black "X's" in my calendar, and I wanted the first day of the month to be a good one. So I traded a bit more sleep for something better this morning. And here is what I have to show for it:photo 2 So far so good.

Quiz! What's Your Favorite Idol?

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Are we modern, Western people really more advanced than the ancients? We certainly believe we are. This arrogance is one of the reasons modern Americans have such difficulty with the Bible; after all, we are advanced and advancing, and the Bible--particularly the Old Testament--is backwards and primitive.It is true that we are an advanced people technologically--think of all the ways we can kill or display pornography!--but when it comes to idolatry, we are as prone to idol worship as the ancients. Or more so.(Credit: http://kishanpurohitleytonmedia.blogspot.com/2013/01/5-magazine-newsstand-task.html)

Israel and the Golden Calf

We read in Exodus 32 of the golden calf that the Israelites made and worshipped while waiting for Moses to return from Mount Sinai. Like so many of the stories in the Bible,‘the account of the golden calf seems remote and distant. But that's because we don't understand what an idol is.

The Definition of an Idol

In his book Counterfeit Gods,?Tim Keller describes idolatry in this way:

What is an idol? It is anything more important to you than God, anything that absorbs your heart and imagination more than God, anything you seek to give you what only God can give.A counterfeit god is anything so central and essential to your life that, should you lose it, your life would feel hardly worth living. An idol has such controlling position in your heart that you can spend most of your passion and energy, your emotional and financial resources, on it without a second thought. It can be family and children, or career and making money, or achievement and critical acclaim, or saving 'face' and social standing It can be a romantic relationship, peer approval, competence and skill, secure and comfortable circumstances, your beauty or your brains, a great political or social cause, your morality and virtue, or even success in the Christian ministry. When your meaning in life is to fix someone else's life, we may call it 'co-dependency' but it is really idolatry. An idol is whatever you look at and say, in your heart of hearts, 'If I have that, then I'll feel my life has meaning, then I'll know I have value, then I'll feel significant and secure.' There are many ways to describe that kind of relationship to something, but perhaps the best one is worship." [Emphasis mine.]

Be Proud, O Modern

Idolatry isn't something that we've grown out of; idolatry is something modern Western culture is perfecting. The ancients would be astounded at the brazen boldness of our idolatry: we are worshipping idols of which they never dreamed.

Which Idol Did You Get?

J.A. Medders has a nice summary of Keller's material on his blog, which I've excepted below.

Life Only Has Meaning/I Only Have Worth If....

  1. I have power and influence over others. (Power Idolatry)
  2. I am loved and respected by _____. (Approval Idolatry)
  3. I have this kind of pleasure experience, a particular quality of life. (Comfort idolatry)
  4. I am able to get mastery over my life in the area of _____. (Control idolatry)
  5. People are dependent on me and need me. (Helping Idolatry)
  6. Someone is there to protect me and keep me safe. (Dependence idolatry)
  7. I am completely free from obligations or responsibilities to take care of someone. (Independence idolatry)
  8. I am highly productive and getting a lot done. (Work idolatry)
  9. I am being recognized for my accomplishments, and I am excelling in my work. (Achievement idolatry)
  10. I have a certain level of wealth, financial freedom, and very nice possessions. (Materialism idolatry)
  11. I am adhering to my religion‘s moral codes and accomplished in its activities. (Religion idolatry)
  12. This one person is in my life and happy to be there, and/or happy with me. (Individual person idolatry)
  13. I feel I am totally independent of organized religion and am living by a self-made morality. (Irreligion idolatry)
  14. My race and culture is ascendant and recognized as superior. (Racial/cultural idolatry)
  15. A particular social grouping or professional grouping or other group lets me in. (Inner ring idolatry)
  16. My children and/or my parents are happy and happy with me. (Family idolatry)
  17. Mr. or Ms. Right? is in love with me. (Relationship Idolatry)
  18. I am hurting, in a problem; only then do I feel worthy of love or able to deal with guilt. (Suffering idolatry)
  19. My political or social cause is making progress and ascending in influence or power. (Ideology idolatry)
  20. I have a particular kind of look or body image. (Image idolatry)

The Only Known Cure

The only known cure for idolatry: faith, hope, and love. 

Is God Nice?

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The conventional?wisdom is that God?is just like a religious Santa Claus: nice, gentle, and tame. In other words, a God totally unknown to the Israelites.Descent from Mount Sinai (Sistine Chapel), by Cosimo Rosselli (1481). (Credit: wikipedia.)

The Israelites Were Afraid at Sinai

In Exodus 19 we read of the intense preparations the Israelites take before the theophany on Mt. Sinai. This is the first contact the ordinary Israelites have ever had with the Lord, and they are terrified.

And So Is Everyone Else

Terror is actually the universal sentiment in scripture when ever anyone meets with God or his angels. Even in the New Testament, the human response to a theophany (a divine appearance) is always fear:

  • Remember the shepherds in Luke's account of Christmas, keeping watch over their flocks by night? The first thing the angel of the Lord says to them is "Fear not!" [Luke 2:10].
  • On the Mount of Transfiguration, even Peter is terrified at the temporary vision he, James, and John are given of the true nature of Jesus. When they hear the voice of God, they fall to the ground in terror [Matthew 17:6].
  • On the road to Damascus, Paul also falls to the ground in fear after hearing the voice of the risen Christ [Acts 9:4].

Scripture is clear: the majesty of God is terrible to behold.

Her Majesty is Not Amused

[Credit: thestar.com]We should not be surprised that divine majesty is as serious as something can be. Even 21st century interactions with human majesty require clear protocol and produce respect and solemnity. Consider the rules‘that even the American President has to observe when he meets with Her Majesty. For example, it is considered reprehensible to ever turn your back on the queen. Why? Because majesty provokes respect. 

"All Rise"

The Supreme Court of the United States of America [credit: Wikipedia]We don't have a king or queen in this country, but we do have the law, and the law is majestic and terrible. The law has the power of life and death over the people. When the judge enters the courtroom, everyone stands out of respect, not of the person of the judge, but of the law which the judge represents. Only God is greater than the law.

God is Not Tame

It shouldn't be surprising that a divine appearance is terrible. Moses was right to prepare the people. Any God worth the title is by definition greater than anyone of whom we can conceive. Our pop culture versions of the Santa Claus God betray our lack of honest imagination.To paraphrase C.S. Lewis, God is good, but he is not tame.No, it's not surprising that God is terrible and majestic. But do you know what is surprising?[Credit: endhairloss.eu. (I know--weird place for a baby pic.)]That the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, the glory of the One and Only, full of grace and truth [John 1:14].The Incarnation? That's surprising in the best possible way.

How I Get Things Done

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Moses gets productive in Exodus 18. (I know I was supposed to write about Exodus 18 yesterday, but I have a big presentation to make every Sunday morning in front of hundreds of people; dear reader, please forgive.) Since I don't have anything interesting to say about Exodus 18, let's talk about productivity. Almost ten years ago, a friend of mine gave me a book that has been more influential in how I do my work then anything else I've ever read or learned in school. The book was David Allen's 2001 bestseller Getting Things Done.http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Getting_Things_Done

GTD, Baby

Here's the idea behind the Getting Things Done methodology (GTD for folks in the know):

  • you have lots of inputs coming at you all day every day, and you need a way to capture, process, and act on all that data;
  • GTD gives you a process to do that.

Capture?Everything

One of David Allen's tips is to learn never to keep anything in your head, but to write everything down. I follow this advice obsessively: as soon as I think of anything, I write it down. I use Omnifocus on the Mac and iOS devices, keep small notepads everywhere, and even carry a small pocket notebook a pocket spacepen with me everywhere.My trusty pocket notebook and space pen.

The Weekly Review

Around every seven days or so, David Allen recommends a "weekly review," i.e., a time when you sit quietly and look over your calendar and review all incomplete projects and next action lists. I try to keep a weekly review on Monday mornings (I'm off on Mondays) and when I do that, my week seems much more manageable and less stressful.

Go For It

If Moses needed a system for productivity, so do you. If you are having trouble keeping your commitments, answering all your email (you know who you are), or sleeping soundly at night, GTD might be for you.

When Folks Aren't Strong Enough

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Moses needed to rely on the support of other people. And so does everyone else."Joshua fights Amalek (1625) [http://www.artbible.info/bible/exodus/17.html]In Exodus 17 we read of a battle between the Israelites and the Amalekites:

10?So Joshua fought the Amalekites as Moses had ordered, and Moses, Aaron and Hur?went to the top of the hill.?11?As long as Moses held up his hands, the Israelites were winning,?but whenever he lowered his hands, the Amalekites were winning.?12?When Moses? hands grew tired, they took a stone and put it under him and he sat on it. Aaron and Hur held his hands up?one on one side, one on the other‘so that his hands remained steady till sunset." [Exodus 17:10-12].

I love that image: Moses, too weak to stand on his own power, supported by Aaron and Hur.

Lifting Up Those Who Can't Stand Alone

Several weeks ago in my church, our music director Kate Miner referenced this passage. We were talking in church about the persecuted church in Mosul and elsewhere in the Middle East, and Kate said, "Just as in the scriptures when Moses needed other people to lift him up, it's our job today to lift up our brothers and sisters in Iraq who are facing persecution because of their faith."That thought really struck me: it is my job to intercede and lift up others who may be too weak to do it for themselves. Certainly that applies to the persecuted church in the Middle East and worldwide, but also to folks who are struggling in my community.Who can you lift up in prayer today?

You Can't Understand Jesus Without Exodus

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Once you have the eyes to see, you realize that virtually everything Jesus said and did came out of the religious heritage of Israel. Even the things that seem to be farthest from Judaism and most central to Christianity often are a recasting or an allusion to what we call the Old Testament. The Lord's Prayer, for example, is drawing upon Exodus 16.Manna from Heaven; Maciejowski Bible, 13th century. (credit: http://dailyoffice.org/2012/04/19/morning-prayer-4-19-12-alphege-archbishop-of-canterbury-martyr-1012/)After coming out of slavery in Egypt, the Israelites faced forty years of wandering in the desert. But, the Lord provided. Each day (excluding the seventh day, the Sabbath), the Lord made provision for "thin flakes like frost?on the ground...It was white like coriander seed and tasted like wafers made with honey" (16:14,31). The Israelites called this strange food?manna.God provided manna every day, but if the people gathered more than they needed for the day, it rotted. The Israelites learned, therefore, to trust God for each day's provision.When Jesus taught his disciples to pray "Give us this day our daily bread," he was reminding them of the manna God provided in the wilderness.When we pray the Lord's Prayer, we pray for God to give us what we need to make it through the day: nothing more, nothing less.

What's the Oldest Verse in the Bible?

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It should be obvious that events?don't have to be written down in the order in which they occur. You could, for example, have two books on your shelf: a book about the Revolutionary War, published in 2014, and a book about the Vietnam War, published in 1986. The older book is the one about the more recent event. And, just because a book is a new publication about an old event does not mean that the book is unreliable. For example, the book in question could reliably be based on firsthand accounts; you could have a book about the Revolutionary War, published in 2014, that is based on George Washington's letters. In short, the date of the account and the date of the event accounted do not have to go together."Parting of the Red Sea," by Julia Kuo (http://oldandnewproject.com/portfolio/parting-of-the-red-sea/)The same principle applies to the Bible. For example, most scholars believe that some of the letters of Paul such as 1 Thessalonians and Philippians were written earlier than the Gospels, even though the Gospels tell of events that happened earlier than the letters of Paul. (There were certainly earlier accounts of the life of Jesus that the Gospel writers used when composing their works, but these early works are lost to history.)Whoever it was who wrote down Exodus in the form in which we have it--tradition says it was Moses, but we cannot know for sure--whoever it was certainly did not write it down while the events he (or she) describes were actually happening. Only after the fact, when the Israelites were free and clear, would anyone have had time or inclination to record the experiences of the Exodus. Which is why I find Exodus 15:21 so fascinating.

The Oldest Verse in the Bible

In Exodus 15, we read a brief little poem that some scholars believe is the oldest poem in the Bible:

20?Then the prophet Miriam, Aaron‘s sister, took a tambourine in her hand; and all the women went out after her with tambourines and with dancing.21And Miriam sang to them:
?Sing to the?Lord, for he has triumphed gloriously;
horse and rider he has thrown into the sea."

Exodus 15:21 is called "Miriam's Song," and some scholars believe it is a victory song that comes from the time immediately?after the Israelites' miraculous crossing of the Red Sea. ?In other words, Miriam's song in Exodus 15;21 could be the spontaneous song of victory that the Israelite women burst into after realizing that they were?free at last!How cool is that?

Did the Red Sea Event Happen?

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The miraculous parting of the Red Sea in Exodus 14 is one of the most dramatic events in all the pages of scripture. It is also, for many people, a stumbling block: they read about the walls of water on either side of the Israelites as they pass through on dry ground and think, "This is why I'm not religious--how could anyone believe this stuff?" So, did it actually happen? What are modern, thinking people supposed to think?"Parting of the Red Sea," by Julia Kuo (http://oldandnewproject.com/portfolio/parting-of-the-red-sea/)

I Can't Prove the Red Sea Event Happened

I can't prove to you that Moses stretched out his hand and that the Lord then drove the waters apart, turning the sea into dry land (14:21). But, even without "proof," this miracle (and other Old Testament miracles) don't worry me, and I'm able to accept them as spiritually formative and important indicators of the power and nature of God.

And Natural Explanations Don't Work For Me

Any explanations that use the natural to explain the miraculous, along the lines of "maybe there was a strong wind that made the waters part in just that way?" don't really work, because this is a miracle, and miracles are, by definition, supposed to be supernatural. Ancient people knew how the world worked, and they knew that large bodies of water don't just part and allow people to walk between the walls of water. In fact, that's the reason the Red Sea event is such a big deal: it was considered out of the ordinary course of events, a miracle. So, the Connecticut-Yankee-in-King-Arthur's-Court sort of explanation just doesn't work for me.

Instead, I Start with Jesus

I don't start with Old Testament miracles. I start with Jesus. Jesus trusted the Old Testament (the only scriptures that existed in his lifetime) in his devotional and worship life. We know this because he quotes from the Old Testament extensively, even quoting from the Psalms when he's on the cross: the Hebrew scriptures were central to his life. Jesus also references Moses several times. This means to me that Jesus received and accepted the Hebrew scriptures as formative and important. If he didn't need to worry with historicity--i.e., did this actually?happen?--then neither do I.

And I Believe That the Resurrection?Is?Plausible

If Jesus is risen from the dead, then I can accept his word about everything. If he accepts the Old Testament as formative and important, than so can I.

But?If Jesus Stayed Dead, Then Who Cares?

If Easter morning didn't happen, then who cares what Exodus says about the Red Sea? But if it did happen, then I can accept the Old Testament miracles as spiritually nourishing and important and not get caught up in some kind of modernist obsession with proving that they happened. Because, if Christ is risen, then there is nothing God can't do.What do you think?